14 DAY TRIAL // The second Google phone in the world, HTC Magic, will soon become available on the Chinese market. The device is expected to be added to China Mobile's offering, the largest mobile phone operator in the country, and will become available under the name of Dopod G2 (this is the name under which the company sells its handsets in China).
The Dopod G2 phone, which comes in the same form factor as HTC Magic, at least when it comes to its looks, should become available with the carrier sometime in May, yet no details on the price tag it will feature have been unveiled so far.
The device is reported to come around with a wide range of customizations, including specific firmware and support for China Mobile's TD-SCDMA networks. Most of the software that has been included with the handset seems to be rather different from what we are accustomed to actually see with an Android-powered mobile phone.
All the tweaking and blending that can be spotted with the device make it resemble the iPhone a lot, while also turning it into a handset quite different from the Android we were expecting to see. At the same time, given the compliance with China's networks, it seems that the phone will not include Wi-Fi or 3G capabilities.
Many of you might already know that China Mobile is the largest phone carrier in the world, with more than 415 million subscribers. Given the fact that the iPhone isn't there just yet, Android could be able to gain a lot of market share in the country pretty soon.
At the same time, the launch will also prove beneficial for HTC. The company's CEO Peter Chou said recently that the phone maker intended to double its smartphone sales in the country by the end of 2009. Last year, only 800,000 HTC mobile phones were sold in China, yet the market shows a lot of potential for future growth. The company plans to push TD-SCDMA, WCDMA and CDMA 2000 handsets on the local market, while also continuing its partnership with carriers for the distribution of its Dopod brand.